Mele’s Musings

Jet Blue Gets It Right on Flight Attendant Fiasco

All over the country, including in my own kitchen last week, citizens had the opportunity to discuss the merits of Steven Slater, the flight attendant who decided that shouting expletives and releasing an emergency ramp was a good way to handle on the job frustration. Far be it from me to judge, but the consensus around my dinner table from my children was that he could have found a better way to deal with the situation, and that the way he acted would probably get you expelled from school.

Thankfully, my children are smart enough to realize that Slaton is an idiot - that losing your cool and endangering others is not a good thing. I think we all learned that lesson in kindergarten, at least my kids did. But that’s not really what I want to talk about.

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The burning question for marketers is how did Jet Blue handle things? In this age of transparency and Twitter, did Jet Blue - a company known for social media savvy - get it right?

First, we should be clear about what Jet Blue did. And the truth is, they didn’t do much of anything. On Facebook and Twitter, they were mostly silent about it. They did steer people to a clever blog post they created that alluded to the situation and which garnered a lot of comments. But mostly, they just said nothing.

Which was brilliant.

And then, a few days later, they announced their All You Can Jet pass. Coincidence? Maybe. The one they did last year came out about the same time, but you have to admit the timing was pretty good. At the very least, they stayed focused on their business, and stayed out of the hypecycle.

Really brilliant.

Now, some social media pundits were very adamant that Jet Blue had missed a golden opportunity. You can see what these experts had to say in the New York Times article on the subject.

Ironically, however, in this case, it was best for them to simply stay out of it. And, interestingly, Jet Blue’s “reputation” in terms of positive and negative commentary actually improved over the course of the first week of the story as they stayed mostly silent on it.

By staying silent and carefully considering what they needed to respond to or not, Jet Blue got this one right. I am not sure if this was actually their strategy, or if they were simply “stifled by their lawyers” as AdAge implied. But it doesn’t matter. The story is blowing over, and Jet Blue seems unscathed by it.

From my perspective, Jet Blue did right to stay out of it because it was really an isolated incident of bad behavior. No one could logically blame the airline for the actions of this flight attendant who simply lost it. Nothing about Jet Blue’s policies, training, or talent management had any bearing on this situation. Reasonable people understand that the airline did nothing to cause this action, and their handling of it - assess the situation, consider the right next actions without rushing into anything - was appropriate.

So, what’s the lesson?

First, transparency is important, but so is tact. Sometimes staying quiet and letting things blow over is the best option.

Second, a quick response is important, but so is careful consideration. Sometimes it’s better to get it right than to just do something.

Third, building a reputation for customer service, listening, and communication pays huge dividends. At Jet Blue, it’s not just corporate speak or marketing hype. They have built an organization that shows it cares about customer service. Because they have done so, their own customers were their best defense in the Slaton maelstrom.

These are good lessons for all of us. Not just airlines.

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